Lanzarote is one of the most beautiful of the Canary Islands and La Graciosa, situated north-west of the latter, is one of its well-kept treasures. The two islands are separated by a strait known as El Río. The origin of the island’s name is not clear – some hold that it already existed before Lanzarote was added to the Crown of Castile following the expedition of the Norman conqueror, Jean de Béthencourt, in 1402. Whatever the case, its name is well deserved.

La Graciosa is the largest of the islands and islets that make up the so-called Chinijo Archipelago and its south side is dominated by extensive beaches of yellow sand, like La Cocina and La Francesa. Also located on the seaboard is its only two towns, Caleta de Sebo and Pedro Barba. Caleta de Sebo is the main population centre, while Pedro Barba is currently uninhabited. Like the rest of the Canary Islands, La Graciosa is volcanic in origin. Its highest peak is Las Agujas, which rises to 266 metres.

Chinijo Archipelago Marine Reserve

La Graciosa is part of the Chinijo Archipelago Marine Reserve. The word Chinijo, a local place-name meaning “small”, is usually applied to children here. With an area of 70,700 hectares, it is the largest marine reserve in Europe and is endowed with incalculable scenic value. This large reserve, which stretches between the towns of Teguise and Haría, comprises the islands of La Graciosa, Alegranza, Montaña Clara, Roque del Este, Roque del Oeste (also known as Roque del Infierno) and El Risco de Famara.

The biological wealth of La Graciosa  is immense. Some 304 species of marine macroalgae have been catalogued thus far, accounting for 53.15% of the Canary Islands’ overall flora. Indeed, it boasts the greatest diversity of macroalgae species in the archipelago.

The rich resources contained in these waters account for the abundance of marine birds which feed on them for their staple diet. The geopark is designated a Special Conservation Area for Birds (ZEPA, in Spanish). The most common bird species here is Cory's shearwater. Also in considerable numbers are some rare or endangered species such as the kestrel, barn owls, Eleonora's falcon and the guincho or osprey.

Another highly significant potential value of this Marine Reserve are the historical references regarding the presence here of the monk seal. This marine vertebrate, which is now an endangered species worldwide, survives thanks to the tranquility and biological wealth contained along these shores, pitted with sea caves and jameos (collapsed lava tunnels) where they take shelter and reproduce. Alegranza is currently one of the best suited spots for reintroducing the monk seal whose numbers have dwindled sharply due to poaching on the nearby Mauritanian and Mediterranean coasts.

Underwater Journey

Diving is becoming increasingly more popular on the island, which features three major diving spots. El Canal, located between Alegranza and Roque del Oeste, has a platform at a depth of 25-30 m and a pronounced, 35-40 metre fault containing a large amount of fauna. There are abundant populations of large-size grouper, island grouper and amberjack, as well as abundant violescent sea-whip, yellow sea-whip and white gorgonian. Another ideal diving area is Montaña Amarilla, in the south-west of La Graciosa near Punta del Pobre. A short distance from the shore is a berm which dips down 12 metres and becomes more perpendicular to the coastline the further offshore you swim, sloping into a 20-m chasm. This is densely populated with mainly common two-banded seabream, red mullet, barred hogfish and Mediterranean slipper lobster. As you approach the last area, Alegranza, a marked increase in coastal marine life becomes evident. Large crabs and limpets can be seen from the boat. Diving in these waters is a privilege, especially since the Marine Reserve came into being. To dive there, you need you first apply to the Canary Island government for the relevant permits.

One surprising feature of these underwater seascapes are the large colonies of sea-whip where the current is strong. They latch onto the rock and catch the nutrition that flows to them through the water. The ban on commercial fishing in this restricted area enables fish to reproduce freely, enriching these waters in quantity and variety. Such species as the wrass, which has disappeared in other areas, is prolific here, as is red mullet, eagerly searching for food on the more sandy seabeds.

Come along and dive in the depths of La Graciosa in the Chinijo Archipelago off Lanzarote. Check out our flights here.

Text and photos by Turismo Lanzarote

Berlin is synonymous with art. You don’t need to go much further to bump into someone who, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, has journeyed to the capital of Germany in search of an opportunity. With almost 450 galleries, 20,000 artists and over 3,000 exhibitions yearly, Berlin is experiencing an art boom. It heads the European art scene by a mile.

Gossip has it that over the last 20 years a new art gallery has been opened every week. Faced with that trend, no wonder that, over the last 12 years, Berlin’s galleries have joined forces to launch the Berlin Gallery Weekend (from 29 April to 1 May 2016) – the first of its kind – subsequently replicated in Paris, Vienna and Barcelona. We visited the city to see it for ourselves and spent three days packed with inaugurations, talks, parties and social events at special times to showcase the latest productions. This, just when spring is descending on the city and its streets start casting their gaze outwards.

Zero budget: admission to the galleries and other areas is free-of-charge.

Recommendation: hire a bicycle – distances become shorter when negotiated on two wheels. The city is big and the galleries string out from east to west, although centred mainly on Berlin Mitte, Kreuzberg and Potsdamer Straße. We began our tour – map in hand!

Berlin’s Epicentre – Auguststraße in Mitte

Auguststraße is lined with trendy restaurants and art galleries. This is the historic centre of Berlin; hence its name – Mitte, meaning middle. There we came across the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, a former margarine factory repurposed as an emerging art lab for mapping the latest trends. Right next door, the collector, Thomas Olbricht, presents his private collection, me Collectors Room, an area of 1,300m² with exhibits ranging from works by Cindy Sherman to exotic objects worthy of a curio cabinet. Long-standing venues, including the widely acclaimed Eigen + Art, blend in with the newcomers, like Kicken Berlin and neugerriemschneider, and the elegant building of Sprüth Magers on Oranienburger Straße, bringing a breath of fresh air to the local scene.

One of the latest venues to burst in on the scene, which features the epitome of a fusion between art and gastronomy, is the Jüdische Mädchenschule (Jewish Girls’ School). Housed in this building – which reopened in 2012 after falling into disuse – is theMichael Fuchs Galerieand a number of restaurants which form a nexus between the past and present. Among these isThe Kosher Class Room,which offers traditional Sabbath dishes on the menu, andMogg Deli,the best place for indulging in a good pastrami sandwich.

Before leaving the centre and heading for Kreuzberg, we made a compulsory stop at Clärchens Ballhaus. Opened in 1913, this dance hall is a veritable Berlinese legend which survived two World Wars and numerous Nazi clampdowns. Young and old, tourists, locals, good and bad dancers – there is something infectious about Clärchens which makes you feel at home there!

Around Checkpoint Charlie

Near the Berlin Wall’s most famous checkpoint and also the Jüdisches Museum (Jewish Museum) and halfway between Kreuzberg and Mitte, lies the Galerienhaus. This former Lufthansa headquarters which became a centre for political asylum-seekers in the nineties, houses 11 contemporary art galleries on its various levels. If you chance to go there, be sure to see the Gallerie Nordenhake, the Gallerie ŻAK | BRANICKA and the historic Konrad Fischer Gallery. Although initially founded in Düsseldorf, like so many other galleries in the Rhinelands, it ended up moving to the capital.

A few minutes away in the Mitte direction lies one of the trendiest venues in the area, the VeneKlasen/Werner Gallery, founded by the New Yorker, Michael Werner, who brought a piece of the Chelsea scene to Berlin, making it more spacious, more professional and… more expensive.

Before leaving Kreuzberg, we visited the Church of St Agnes which now houses the König Galerie. Built in the Brutalist style, it was acquired by Johann König and opened to the public as an art gallery in 2015. Here, in what appears to be the end of the white cube, a good itinerary is guaranteed.

Potsdamer Straße – A Trendy Art Boom

We came to Schöneberg, on the old west side, where for many years galleries and creative projects have been mushrooming, taking up every available square metre. The fact is it seems to be a surefire win-win formula – the venues are mutually beneficial in that their accretion and synched opening and inauguration times draw ever more visitors. Among the galleries you simply cannot pass up are the Supportico Lopez and Esther Schipper. However, if time is at a premium and you need to make a choice, head straight for the Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie. The Italian artist opened her gallery in 2008 in the former apartment where the actor and singer Hans Albers lived from 1946 to 1948. The premises have been preserved virtually intact. The walls are lined with wood panelling and secret recesses, which act as a backdrop.

Art galleries housed on a fifth floor without a lift in reclaimed buildings; exhibitions which can only be reached by crossing two patios and three doors… the list goes on and on. If you’re planning to visit the city within the prescribed timeframe, check out the full programme and our daily flights to Berlin. Happy Gallery Weekend!

Text by Núria Gurina for Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

Photos by Marco Funke, Genial23, Axel Schneider, Wolfgang Staudt

The writer and journalist, David Lagercrantz, took up the challenge of continuing the trilogy begun by Steig Larsson, having authored the fourth novel in the Millennium series, That Which Does Not Kill. In addition to instigating Scandinavia’s black novel phenomenon, this popular trilogy featuring Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist as the main characters has turned into a fascinating alternative guide to the city where the action is set – Stockholm.

7-Eleven

While not a particularly interesting spot for sightseers, establishments like 7-Eleven, at number 25 Götgatan Street, can always comes in handy. As a regular, it is here that the hacker and social recluse, Lisbeth Salander, sources the two essential ingredients of her pernicious diet – frozen pizzas and cartons of Marlboro Light.

Ikea

Ikea is a veritable institution in Sweden and Steig Larsson could not afford to ignore it in his trilogy. It features in the second instalment, when Lisbeth Salander turns up at the Kungens Kurva premises (the largest in the world) to buy furniture for her new apartment. Larsson provides such a detailed list of the purchase – Karlanda sofa, Galant desk, Bonde bookshelves… – that anyone wishing to faithfully replicate Salander’s flat interior could easily do so.

Kvarnen

Among Lisbeth Salander’s few friends are the members of the heavy metal group, Evil Fingers, who she usually meets up with at Kvarnen on Tuesday evenings. Located at number 4 Tjärhovsgatande Street and with over a century’s standing, it is one of Stockholm’s oldest taverns, offering such noteworthy traditional Swedish dishes asköttbullar (meatballs) and surströmming (herring).

Lisbeth Salander’s House

In The Girl Who Played With Fire (2008), Lisbeth Salander moves to a luxury apartment at 9 Fiskargatan Avenue. This block, built in 1910, stands out in Stockholm’s skyline for its green metal roof. Salander enjoys no fewer than 21 rooms in her new abode, as well as tempting views of Djurgården island and Saltsjön Bay!

Mikael Blomkvist’s House

It requires no feat of the imagination to picture Larsson walking in front of 1 Bellmansgatan Street and fantasise settling down in such a privileged enclave. His desire, at least in the fiction tale, materialised when he had one of his main characters, Mikael Blomkvist, move into the attic, a 65m² apartment flooded with light, affording beautiful views over Riddarfjärden Bay, Gamla Stan and the Stockholm City Hall.

Mellqvist Kaffebar

At 78 Hornsgatan Street, the Mellqvist Kaffebar is not just one of the cafés most frequented by the protagonists of Millennium. It was actually one of the author’s favourite spots, too. There are even those who claim that, between one café and another, it was there that Larsson wrote more than a chapter of his successful trilogy. Indeed, the journal, Expo, of which Larsson was the director, was housed on the floor above it.

Mosebacke Torg

Just a few metres from Salander’s new apartment lies the Mosebacke Torg, one of Stockholm’s loveliest squares. Sited on the square is the Södra Teatern, the city’s oldest theatre, built in 1859. It is in the theatre bar that Lisbeth usually meets Annika Giannini to exchange confidences over a few beers. The Mosebacke Torg also houses one of Stockholm’s last-surviving telephone boxes still in service.

Millennium’s Editorial Office

Located on the corner of Götgatan Avenue – one of the busiest arteries in the Södermalm district – and Hökens Gata Street, the editor’s office of the Millennium journal is housed on the floor above Greenpeace’s headquarters. Staunch enthusiasts of the trilogy are likely to be disappointed when they realise that, while the offices of Greenpeace are indeed located on that corner, the upper floors of the building are all just apartments.

Samirs Gryta

Enthralled with their couscous and mutton stew, the Samirs Gryta Syrian restaurant is a favourite among the Millennium editorial staff. The exact address of this fictitious eatery is never divulged in any of the instalments but, in terms of its appearance, Steig Larsson was probably inspired by the Indian restaurant Dado (Tavastgatan, 28) and the adjoining Lebanese restaurant, Tabbouli (Tavastgatan, 22).

Stortorget

Stortorget is the square where Dragan Armanski catches sight of Lisbeth Salander shortly after being hired by Milton Security. Stortorget is one of Stockholm’s historic sites as here, in November 1520, the Bloodbath took place, when Danish King Christian II had hundreds of members of the ruling classes executed in order to seize control of the country. Also in Stortorget is the Nobelmuseet, the Nobel Prizes museum.

The Stockholm City Museum offers a fascinating tour of the city inspired by the Millennium trilogy. Click here for further details.

Ready for an exciting journey through the trilogy? Check out our flights here.

Text by Oriol Rodríguez for ISABELYLUIS Comunicación

Images by Holger Ellgaard, I99pema, Kirsty Komuso, Arild Vågen, Mstyslav Chernov

Santiago de Compostela is a historic enclave in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula and, in the Middle Ages, it became a major centre of Christian pilgrimage. Both the clergy and laymen and women journeyed to the city from all corners of Europe at some time in their lives to visit the remains of James the Apostle, which were unearthed in the current Santiago Cathedral in 813 and preserved there ever since.

Nowadays the city is a popular destination all year around. The Road is a big draw, and not only for the more devout, as it attracts both amateur and professional sportspeople and even hikers and sporadic walkers. Here, we are going to deal with the latter group. The fact is that more and more families elect to do a few stretches of the Road to Santiago. We are going to focus on refreshing activities to engage in once you have completed the route. Everyone can have fun here, so you won’t want to miss out on it.

Before embarking on that, however, it is worth going for a walk around Santiago. One way of gauging the city’s pulse is by getting a feel for its size. We recommend you take a ride on the tourist train, which goes around the whole historic centre. It will lead you past landmark buildings, uncover gardens and provide you with panoramic views of the monumental area and the Cathedral. The summer schedule (July and August) is from 11 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. and the train leaves every half an hour. You can get it in the Plaza de Obradoiro and the route lasts 45 minutes. The price for children is 4 euros, while infants under 4 years old can ride for free.

Cool Off!

Santiago has several swimming pools – both indoor and outdoor – where you can swim, play and sunbathe. Of all the pools, the Piscinas do Sar comes highly recommended, with its bathing area adjacent to the multi-purpose Fontes do Sar, which has a children’s pool (covered in winter and outdoor in July and August).

If you instead prefer being immersed in natural surroundings, a few minutes from the city lie the River Beaches with all kinds of amenities. Set in a nature spot conducive to relaxation, the swimming area of Seira is one of the main tourist spots in the Concello (municipality) de Rois, particularly in summer. There you can do watersports and chill out in perfect harmony with nature. It has green spaces and picnic areas. Also suitable for children is the Furelos swimming area (Melide).

Also worth visiting are the beaches on the rías (estuaries) with their fine sand and calm waters, ideal for children. The nearest estuary beaches are just over half an hour away.

Eat and Eat

Children are welcome in the city’s restaurants and cafés. However, to ensure the best possible service and peace and quiet, it is advisable to avoid the peak hours.

Santiago Turismo offers a selection of restaurants and cafés for those touring with children. Some feature children’s menus, others are spacious and quiet and several have pleasant open-air terraces and even swings. The ambience and decor in some instances is specifically suited to children.

Accommodation

Camping is a good option in summer. Located on one of the hills overlooking the city, and just a 15-minute walk from the monumental area, is the As Cancelas urban campsite. It has bungalows with great views of Santiago, is sited in a very pleasant tree-lined setting and has a swimming pool and other amenities.

Another option for family overnights are the numerous rural tourism lodgings in the vicinity of Santiago de Compostela. Conducive to contact with nature and catering for children, they are the ideal accommodation for youngsters. Almost all of them have cots and some even have rooms full of toys and special facilities designed for keeping children entertained on rainy days.

The city of Santiago proper also has a broad selection of accommodations, ranging from the big hotel chains to house or apartment rentals and small hotels in the monumental centre with a charm of their own, often located in historic buildings with a delightful atmosphere.

Why wait to discover Santiago de Compostela with the family? Check out our flights here.

Text and images by Turismo de Santiago, Área Santiago